Red mist
Reypeytun yapay
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"There's too many. I need backup." Hia's panicked voice came through from Tsu'tey's mic. He took a deep breath and got to his feet. He inspected the wounds. Most had been caught by his cummerbund, but he was still shot atleast twice.

But he was hard to kill.

He suffered vertigo and took some time to regain his bearings, letting the adrenaline and fear from her panicked voice wash over him and bring new, desperate energy to his tired muscles. He reached for his mic and pressed the buttons.

"I will be there." He said as he began moving silently, slowly, painfully through the forest. He had her scent through the blood and smoke. He had memorized it.

He found the area. He snuck up behind one of the patrolling men and slit his throat, keeping his hand clamped over his mouth to keep the gurgling to a minimum. As he came upon her position, she burst from the area, rifle drawn. She fired at the first, and he exploded into a red mist that coated the man next to him. She rolled out of the way from the gunfire and hid. Tsu'tey hid and watched her from the safety behind a tree. She ejected a piece of metal and leapt out from her refuge, firing another mist-making bullet through the second man. Her silencer worked well enough.

She was at work, nothing more. Nothing less. She killed methodically, skillfully. As if each bullet was an extension of her being. As if her knife were part of her hand. Red splatters coated the trampled flora and painted the trees in dripping robes of viscera. The bodies she left behind paled and lost all life in seconds.

This is what a demon does. It kills.

He watched her ear flick in his direction as he went to still his heart. A bullet sank into the wood beside him.

"It's me!" He shouted. Heart hammering too hard to let him focus on the fact that he's surrounded by aliens, aliens which he should fear more than her. But he doesn't.

He turns back, and she's there. That murderous gleam in her eyes diminished to a spark. Her her ears were flat agains her head, her eyes wide with fear. And in a flat tone, surely a tone brought by the return of Aria, that dead alien, Hia came through.

"I didn't want you to see that." She said above a whisper.

She looked like she was about to cry. All that pain and fear was flooding in.

"We need to go." Tsu'tey reminded her.

Her ear flicked around, picking up stimuli.

"Run."

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The forest and its dwellers descended upon what was left on the ground. Including the warriors. Hia and Tsu'tey were left behind in the skirmish, but it wasn't long before they had caught up. And so had Tsu'tey's injuries.

His own body was too heavy to hold himself up, he braced himself against the trunk of a tree as he took fast, shallow breaths. Those same fearful eyes met his, and yet it was somehow scarier the second time.

"No. No no no!" At first it was a gasp of realization, next it was denial. Her hands found his wounds as he dropped to the ground. She frantically covered the wounds before she wrapped her arms around him, searching for exit wounds to find none. The bullets where inside. She tensed her jaw as she applied pressure.

"Keep pressure on it!" She said in panicked English, slipping into her native tongue out of fear.

Tsu'tey struggled to keep himself awake and conscious enough to understand. She shakily put his hands on his wounds.

"Pressure. Hold it." She commanded, pleadingly.

A growling, snarling hiss came from a beast behind her. Tsu'tey choked on his fear, hoarsely shouting.

"Palulukan!"

But Hia was just pissed off at the distraction. She turned and hissed. It tore out of her and spat out like that terrible red mist that comes from her victims.

The thanator's crests fell flat against its head. It just wanted her attention. The black tendril, it's queue, motioned towards her. For a moment, Hia was still, nauseous from the fear that pulled at her organs.

But she took her own queue and met the beasts. Wholeness, oneness was met in seconds, that barrier between beast and sapient became a thick murky liquid. They were the same.

Hia picked up her mentor and dearest friend and forced him onto her new companion's back. Information was fed between the two.

A location. A man. A metal man going to- the shack.

Realization and bitterness filled Hia's heart. On the back of the palulukan, they traveled to the nearest safe space. The edge of the valley. They were met by healers.

"Take him." She looked over her shoulder, back at the forest. Back at the healers.

"Hurry! He is Omatikaya's Olo'eyktan!" She hissed. She looked at him one last time. He was barely conscious.

She raced into the forest towards the location. She pressed down onto her mount's back to reduce wind resistance and they tore through the forest towards the shack. There was a woman, she was on palulukan-back, until she wasn't. She was trapped under the body. It was Neytiri.

Hia burst clear through into the clearing, roaring loudly as she did. Making herself known to her father.

He looked at her, anger in his eyes.

"What? You come to kill me too?" He grit his teeth.

Hia dismounted her mount and let them hide.

"I came for you." She scowled at him.

"We don't have to do this." He said. Part of him pleading for her to surrender.

"You're an idiot if you think I'd pass up the chance to avenge the Omatikaya." She said nonchalantly as she drew her knife.

"You gonna kill your old man?" He tested.

Hia dropped to readied position, hot air tore from her throat as her voice broke through into a terrible roar.

She took the first move, moving to his knife arm, avoiding the blade as she clambered up onto it's shoulders. She braced herself on his back and threw her weight around loosely but enough to pull the amp suit onto its back.

She prepared to drive her blade into her father when she met his eyes. And she faltered.

"Aria-" he said almost a whisper. Her memories flooded back. Those nights before he'd redeploy in her childhood. He'd tuck her in after one fun day that grandma Jo insisted he spend with her, he'd sing, poorly, but no child would ever know how bad it really is or say so. But he'd sing her to sleep.

"Dad." Her voice caught in her throat as her emotions betrayed her.

Something caught her leg and she was thrown over and she struck something hard.